(KAI'S POV)
I couldn't take it anymore.
Standing there in the street, watching people tear each other apart while smiling, watching Xenophores walk freely among humans like they belonged there, watching everything we'd fought for, everything we'd survived for, turn into this sick parody of celebration, I felt something inside me crack.
Not break. Not yet.
But crack.
The rage that my mark whispered about constantly, the Wrath etched into my shoulder blade that burned hot whenever I got angry, it wasn't whispering anymore.
It was screaming.
Four years of holding it together. Four years of being the optimist, the one who made jokes to keep morale up, the one who insisted we could survive this if we just stayed smart and stayed together. Four years of watching people suffer and die and fall to corruption while I smiled and cracked wise and pretended everything would work out somehow.
And for what?
So we could end up here, in this city that promised salvation but delivered damnation, watching humanity choose to fall, watching them worship the very things that had destroyed the world?
My hands were shaking. Not from fear. From the effort of keeping them at my sides instead of around someone's throat.
"We need to move," Lira said, her voice cutting through my spiraling thoughts. "Now. Before they notice us standing here."
She was right. We were too visible, too obviously horrified, standing frozen while everyone else celebrated around us. It was only a matter of time before someone decided we needed to join whether we wanted to or not.
"The building," I managed to say, forcing my legs to move even though every instinct screamed to just start hitting something, anything, to make this stop. "We get our things. We get Xeno. We leave."
We moved as a group, staying close, weapons drawn but held low. The streets that had been clean and perfect just an hour ago were now slick with blood and things I refused to identify. Bodies lay where they'd fallen, some still moving weakly, some already gone still.
And people just stepped over them.
Walked around them like they were furniture poorly placed.
A man grabbed my arm as we passed, his smile wide and genuine and completely insane. "Brother! Join us! The Day of Sin and Pleasure is for everyone! Don't you want to be free?"
I yanked my arm away hard enough to make him stumble. "Get the hell away from me."
His smile never wavered. "You're angry. That's good! Wrath is one of the Seven! Let it out! Let it flow! That's what this day is for!"
The rage in my chest spiked so hot I saw red at the edges of my vision.
My hand went to my pistol without conscious thought, fingers wrapping around the grip, and for one terrible second I genuinely considered putting a bullet between his eyes just to make him stop smiling.
Lira's hand closed over mine, firm but not rough. "Don't," she said quietly. "Save it. We're going to need it."
I forced my hand away from the weapon, forced myself to breathe, forced myself to keep moving.
But the crack inside me widened with every step.
The building appeared ahead, doors mercifully closed, and we reached it, yanked the doors open, stumbled inside.
And froze.
Someone was already there.
In the lobby, standing between us and the stairs that led up to where Xeno was, like she'd been waiting for us specifically.
A girl.
Maybe sixteen, maybe younger. Small and thin, with long dark hair hanging limp around a face that looked hollowed out, like something essential had been carved away and never replaced.
She wore simple dark clothes, unremarkable.
Except for what moved around her body.
At first I thought it was a snake, thick and ropy, coiling across her shoulders and around her waist. But as it shifted, catching the light, I realized it was something else.
A worm.
Massive, as thick as my arm, segmented body covered in slick pale skin that glistened wetly. No visible eyes. No obvious mouth. Just smooth pulsing flesh that moved with disturbing fluidity.
The girl smiled at us, and the expression was identical to the ones we'd seen outside. "Hello," she said pleasantly. "I'm Delilah. Follower of Greed. And this," she gestured to the thing coiling around her, "is my partner."
The worm rippled, almost like it was responding to being introduced.
We fanned out instinctively, forming a loose defensive line, weapons coming up.
"Get out of our way," Lira said flatly, knife already in hand.
Delilah tilted her head, still smiling. "But you haven't even experienced the Day of Sin and Pleasure yet. Don't you want to understand? Don't you want to feel what it's like to be truly free?"
"No," I said, and my voice came out rougher than intended, the rage making it hard to speak calmly. "We really don't. Now move."
"I can't do that," Delilah said, sounding genuinely apologetic. "You see, Greed doesn't like when people try to leave without giving something back. You've been eating our food, sleeping in our beds for a whole week. Surely you owe us something?"
The worm unwound from her shoulders slightly, and I saw its front segment split open.
Concentric rings of teeth spiraled inward into darkness.
"We don't owe you anything," Amie said from beside me, voice tight but steady. "Whatever this place is, we never asked to come here."
"But you stayed," Delilah countered. "You could have left anytime. You chose to stay. And now Greed wants payment."
Everything happened too fast.
I didn't even see Delilah move.
One moment she was standing fifteen feet away, the next she was directly in front of Amie, close enough to touch.
The worm struck like lightning, body extending in a blur of pale flesh.
And buried itself in Amie's stomach.
Time stopped.
I watched, frozen, as the worm's teeth sank deep into my sister's midsection, watched her eyes go wide with shock and pain, watched her hands come up slowly to touch the thing penetrating her flesh.
The worm withdrew, pulling back to coil around Delilah's shoulders again, its mouth dripping red.
Amie looked down at herself.
At the blood spreading across her shirt in a rapidly growing stain.
At the wound that was too deep, too severe, too wrong.
"Kai," she said, voice small and confused. "Kai, I, I think, I think she,
Her legs gave out.
She dropped, knees hitting the floor first, then pitching forward, and I moved.
Caught her before she could hit face-first, cradled her against my chest, felt her blood soaking into my clothes, hot and wet and too much, way too much.
"Amie," I said, and my voice broke completely. "Amie, no, no no no, stay with me, you're okay, you're going to be okay, just, just stay with me,
Her hand found mine, squeezed weakly. "Hurts," she whispered. "Kai, it, it really hurts,
Something inside me didn't crack.
It shattered.
Completely. Irreversibly. Every piece of control I'd been desperately clinging to just gone, replaced by a rage so pure, so absolute, that it transcended anger and became something else entirely.
The mark on my shoulder blade exploded with heat, burning so hot I felt my skin blister, and power flooded through my body like magma through veins.
Wrath.
Pure, undiluted Wrath, pouring into me, filling every cell, every thought, every breath with fury that had no bottom, no end, no limit.
I lowered Amie gently to the floor, my hands shaking so badly I could barely control them. "Lira," I said, and my voice came out layered, wrong, like multiple people speaking at once. "Take care of her. Keep her alive."
"Kai," Lira started, but I was already standing, already turning toward Delilah.
Who was smiling wider now, eyes bright with anticipation.
I wasn't going to allow anyone fight,I felt like this was my battle.
"There it is," she breathed. "There's the Wrath. Finally. I was wondering when you'd stop holding back."
I didn't respond with words.
I moved.
Faster than I'd ever moved before, body propelled by rage and the mark and something that felt like it was burning me alive from the inside but also making me more.
The distance between us disappeared in a heartbeat.
My fist connected with her face before she could react.
The impact was devastating.
The sound of her cheekbone shattering echoed off the walls like a gunshot. Her head snapped back with enough force that I heard her neck crack, saw her teeth break, saw blood and worse things spray from her mouth.
The blow lifted her completely off her feet, body ragdolling backward, and she flew across the lobby like she'd been hit by a car.
She hit the far wall, hard, body cratering the plaster, spiderweb cracks spreading outward from the impact point.
She hung there for a moment, suspended.
Then dropped, landing in a crouch.
Blood poured from her ruined face, jaw hanging at an unnatural angle, teeth scattered across the floor.
And she was laughing.
"YES!" she screamed through her broken mouth, the word distorted but still clear enough. "Yes! This is what Greed wanted! This is what makes it all worthwhile!"
The worm unwound from her shoulders, body extending to its full length, easily fifteen feet of segmented pale flesh.
It came at me like a striking snake, mouth opening wide, teeth spiraling.
I caught it.
Just reached out and caught it, one hand closing around its body mid-strike, stopping its momentum completely.
The thing thrashed in my grip, trying to pull free, trying to bite, mouth snapping inches from my face.
I squeezed.
Felt the flesh compress under my fingers, felt bones or cartilage or whatever passed for structure in this thing start to crack.
The worm shrieked, a sound that was somehow worse than anything I'd heard from Xenophores, high-pitched and wrong.
I pulled, muscles bunching, and felt the thing's flesh start to tear.
Delilah's laughter cut off. "You're hurting it," she said, and for the first time there was actual emotion in her voice. Fear. Anger. "You're, stop! STOP!"
I didn't stop.
I ripped.
The worm's body tore in half, ichor spraying in thick gouts, the two pieces writhing independently before starting to regenerate, flesh flowing back together.
But slower than before. Much slower.
Good.
If it could be hurt, it could be killed.
Delilah rushed at me, moving faster than before, faster than anything human should move.
Her fist came at my face in a blur.
I leaned back, let it pass inches from my nose, and countered with an elbow to her already-broken jaw.
More teeth scattered across the floor.
She spun with the impact, used the momentum to bring her leg around in a kick aimed at my ribs.
I blocked with my forearm, felt the impact shudder through my bones, and grabbed her ankle before she could withdraw.
Pulled.
Yanked her off balance and slammed her into the floor, the marble cracking under the force of the impact.
She gasped, air driven from her lungs, and I didn't give her time to recover.
Dropped onto her, knee driving into her chest, pinning her down.
Rained punches down on her face with both fists, each impact making wet sounds that echoed obscenely in the lobby.
Blood sprayed with every hit, painting my hands and arms and face in red and pale ichor mixed together.
The worm came again, regenerated now, wrapping around my throat from behind.
Squeezed.
Air stopped coming.
I grabbed the thing with both hands, fingers digging into slick flesh, and *pulled* in opposite directions.
Trying to tear it again. Trying to rip it apart. Trying to make it stop.
The flesh resisted, tough and resilient, but I felt it start to give.
The worm shrieked again, body thrashing wildly.
Delilah bucked under me, throwing me off, and we both scrambled to our feet.
She stood there, face barely recognizable anymore, blood streaming from dozens of wounds, breathing hard.
And still smiling through broken teeth.
"You're strong," she said, voice wet and distorted. "Wrath makes you so strong. This is, this is exactly what I needed,
She moved again, a blur of motion, and we met in the middle of the lobby in an exchange so fast I barely tracked it.
I hit her jaw. She hit my shoulder. I hit her ribs. She hit my face. Blood flew from both of us, painting abstract patterns across the walls and floor.
The worm joined in, attacking from angles I couldn't defend against, biting and constricting and trying to drag me down.
I grabbed it whenever I could, tore chunks from its body, threw the pieces aside to regenerate while I focused on Delilah herself.
We were destroying the lobby.
Every impact cratered walls or shattered floor tiles. Every missed strike punched holes through plaster. The furniture that had been pristine and perfect was now kindling, smashed to pieces by our bodies being thrown through it.
I was faster than I'd ever been, stronger than should have been possible, the mark feeding me power that burned and exhilarated in equal measure.
But she was experienced.
Every opening I created, she exploited. Every pattern I fell into, she predicted. Every advantage I gained, she neutralized.
We were evenly matched.
And that terrified me.
Because I could feel the power starting to fade, the initial surge of Wrath beginning to burn out, leaving pain and exhaustion in its wake.
My broken rib ground with every breath. My hands were shattered from repeated impacts. Blood ran into my eyes from a dozen cuts across my face.
And Amie was still bleeding out behind me.
The thought gave me one last surge of strength.
I caught Delilah's next punch, twisted her arm, heard it break.
Drove my knee into her stomach, felt her ribs crack.
Grabbed her by the throat with both hands and squeezed, lifting her off the ground, watching her face turn purple.
The worm wrapped around my arms, constricting, trying to make me let go.
I didn't let go.
Squeezed harder, felt her windpipe collapse under my grip.
Her eyes bulged, feet kicking weakly.
And then the worm found my wound.
The broken rib that had been grinding with every breath.
It drove into the injury, teeth sinking deep, biting through muscle to scrape against bone.
The pain was indescribable.
My grip on Delilah's throat loosened involuntarily, body seizing from the agony.
She dropped, gasping, and her fist came up in an uppercut that caught me perfectly under the chin.
My head snapped back, vision exploding into stars.
Another hit to my broken rib, and I felt more bones crack.
Another to my face, and my nose shattered.
I staggered backward, barely staying on my feet, and she pressed the advantage.
Hit after hit after hit, each one finding injured flesh, each one driving me further back.
The worm constricted around my legs, and I went down hard, hitting the floor on my back.
Delilah stood over me, breathing hard, face a ruined mess but eyes bright with something like joy.
"You fought well," she said, voice thick with blood. "Better than most. But Greed always gets what it wants in the end."
Her foot came down on my chest, pressing against my broken ribs, and the pain made my vision go white.
"And what I want," she continued, applying more pressure, "is for you to understand. To see. That resistance is futile. That the Sins have already won. That everything you're fighting for is already lost."
She leaned down, putting her full weight on my chest, and I felt more bones break.
Couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't do anything except lie there while she crushed me.
"Sleep now," she said softly, almost gently. "When you wake up, if you wake up, maybe you'll finally understand."
My vision was going dark around the edges, consciousness fading.
Through the haze, I saw yona with teary eyes,Nyx's wings flared up ready to fight,Luca was hiding behind a pillar and then my sister.
Amie, being held by Lira, her face pale, her shirt soaked red, her eyes on me.
Crying.
Calling my name.
I tried to reach for her.
My arm wouldn't respond.
The darkness crept in from all sides, and I couldn't fight it anymore.
Didn't have the strength.
Didn't have anything left except the spreading pool of my own blood and the sound of Amie screaming.
And as consciousness faded, my last thought was:
I failed.
I failed her.
I failed everyone.
The darkness took me.
And I couldn't do anything but bleed.
And break.
And fall.